


Bursts of Color

by SabrielFluffFriday (Aria_Lerendeair)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fallen Angels, Gabriel (Supernatural) is Loki, Heaven, Hell, Humanity, M/M, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 06:59:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8655175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria_Lerendeair/pseuds/SabrielFluffFriday
Summary: Why are Gabriel's wings gold, anyway?





	

**Author's Note:**

> [Prompt by Anonymous]
> 
> Aria, Aria~ I saw you discussing wing headcanons, and I felt the need to share one of mine, if you don’t mind. (I hope I’m doing this right.) Mostly, Cas’ wings are seen as black, and Gabriel’s are gold – which I love. But here’s an idea: angels are creatures of light, and you only get color when light is reflected. So what if all angel wings are supposed to be white? Angels were made to serve God, so all their wings are the same, differing in shape depending on their roles and stuff.
> 
> So then, why are Cas and Gabe's wings different? Well maybe their wings used to be white as well, but changed. I've already seen the headcanon on Castiel's wings explored - they were supposedly damaged when he stormed Hell to get back Dean. And I really like that headcanon - it fits Cas. Then, how did Gabriel's wings become golden?
> 
> When I think of Gabriel's wings, I think of a shifting mass of gold, that changes its hues depending on the lighting or his mood. There's a soft, glowing gold (like from Indiana Jones) for when he's more angel than god, and then there's a sharp, darker colour, nearly vibrating with power, lowlighted in black, for when he's more god than angel (like the artifacts from Yugioh).
> 
> He's been on earth a long damn time, and I think it's safe to say he's grown along with humanity. He's seen just about everything, done just about everything, and experienced every speakable and unspeakable sin imaginable. He's also a pagan god - including all the messed up shit that accompanies this, from worship and sacrifice to malevolent violence just because he feels like it. Loki is the god of chaos, remember? That sort of thing - that sort of power - will change anyone, even angels.
> 
> Sure, he slaughtered in the name of his father well before he ditched heaven, but in his mind those things were righteous, etc. Heaven tends to look down on the pagans, even more than humanity (and that's why it was the perfect hiding place) - if they saw an archangel, especially the Messenger of God, up to the neck in blood and magic, they would be disgusted by him. They would say it tainted him, and it's reflected in his wings, which are a reflection of themselves.
> 
> But I don't think it's that simple. Gabriel never Fell - he's just not like the other angels anymore. He can live with his actions because he doesn't see himself as an abomination - hell I would expect him to take pride in it. He no longer sees the universe like an angel does. To him, it isn't us or them anymore - he stopped seeing in black and white and started seeing in colour. And these changes in his mindset are reflected in his wings.

*SCREAMING FACES OF SCREAMING* FUCK I LOVE THIS SO MUCH AND THIS IS SUCH A GOOD HEADCANON ON GABRIEL AND THE COLOR OF HIS WIIIIIIIIIINGS.  AND OF COURSE IT IS ALL RIGHT, I WELCOME ALL SHARING OF HEADCANONS BECAUSE THEY ARE GLORIOUS LITTLE THINGS AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO SHARE THEIR HEADCANONS WITH ME!! 

Oh god, and then those last lines, Nonny, about Gabriel starting to see in color fucking broke me, because, I mean, what IF that’s what falling is for angels!! 

Like, just imagine for Cas (and I’ll get to Gabriel in a second) who sees the world in black and white, and the tinge of righteousness.  He knows that things called colors exist, but he has no idea what they mean, or what they ARE, of course, until he goes into Hell.  

The deeper he goes, the deeper the purveying sense of worthlessness that tinges all the human souls he sees.  The anger, the hurt, the hoplessness, all of it.  And the black and white start to blur.  And it isn’t until he sees Dean, until he sees the Righteous Man that must be saved that he realizes there’s something other than black and white.  

Because Dean is a riot of them both, blended together.  Dean is (what Cas would later learn) gray.  And it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.  And when he pulls Dean from Hell, a little of the grey latches on to him, and grows, the longer and more contact he has with Dean…because the world isn’t one color, it’s a beautiful combination of them both…and Dean taught him that.  The further Cas falls, the more gray he sees.  Shades so dark, they’re almost black, shades so light, they’re almost white.  But the world exists because of compromises, because each side is willing to give a little.  And that’s what makes him fall, more than anything else, because DEAN, because Dean is the biggest example of those compromises.  He embodies them in the best and purest way Cas can imagine.  

Now GABRIEL, Gabriel in my eyes, sees the world in color.  Not the same colors WE do, but even brighter.  More of them.  The world is an explosion and riot of color, of compromises, of good and bad and a little bit of everything.  

What stuns him is the next time he sees an angel after he starts to see in color, and starts to appreciate the color.  Is how much he aches for his brothers and sisters to understand what he sees.  My bet is that he saw his brothers and sisters from time to time, and would look at their light and see the white and black reflected and just shake his head, and almost pity them.  He is still one of them, he understands, but he knows there is no going back.  

Then there are the FALLEN angels.  Can you imagine Anna seeing the colors?  Gabriel helping her see, and then showing her why it isn’t terrible?  Why the choice she made doesn’t mean the end of everything, just a new beginning for some things.  

And then Gabriel meets SAM.  He can’t stay away.  Sam is every color he has ever seen all at once.  He flits between them, like he cannot stay one for long.  Whereas his brother is gray, Sam is color incarnate.  And Gabriel can’t help but want to touch and taste.  

When Gabriel comes back, and he finds out what Sam did, he finds a certain harmony to the idea that the epitome of color and everything that represents humanity and earth….overthrew one of the greatest powers for black and white.  There’s a certain poetic-ness to that.  

So he is so, so, so proud of his wings of gold, and Cas’ of dark gray (Cas thinks they are black, but they aren’t, they aren’t, and Gabriel has told him a dozen times over, and he wishes Cas could see the faintest tinges of dark blues and greens that begin to color his wings, colors that remind him of the Winchesters) and the two humans who represent everything that the bleakness of black and white in heaven does not.  

They fit together.  In a strange, unexpected way, they fit.  So Gabriel settles into a home that is always a riot of color, and a brother who understands his need to be different, and a human, who, well.  A human who loves color just as much as him.  

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at [aria-lerendeair.tumblr.com](http://aria-lerendeair.tumblr.com/post/120219235725/16-aria-aria-i-saw-you-discussing-wing) ♡ ♡


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